120 Minute IPA - Utopias Barrel-Aged
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery

Bottle: Poured a dark amber color ale with a small off-white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of caramel malt notes with some deep hoppy notes with some barrel notes clearly noticeable. Tate is also a mix of caramelized malt with some deep pungent hops notes with some nice Utopia barrel notes reminiscent of bourbon and cognac. Body is about average with good carbonation. Interesting mix of flavors and works better than expected.

 

Really F'n good... pours deep amber-copper with a thin head. The aroma brings caramel, toffee, oak, dark fruit, and boozy warmth. Flavor is rich and sweet, with malt, candied citrus, vanilla, and alcohol heat. Full-bodied, viscous, and slowly sipped, it’s a bold barrel-aged sipper.

 

Single 12 ounce bottle obtained during a trip through Vermont and New Hampshire in October 2023.
Pours a clear deep copper amber colour with a short lived tawny coloured head.
Aroma of caramel malt, raisin bread, vanilla, toffee and oaky bourbon with hints of booziness.
Sweet raisin bread French toast with caramel on the palate; vanilla and bourbon; oaky with a touch of spicy hop bitterness that succumbs to the boozy sweetness.
Sticky full mouthfeel with a warming sweet booziness.
Sure, not something you want to drink on the regular, but this is a fantastic treat.

 

A - Deep caramel color with some red/burgundy hue (garnet) with thin, cream colored lacing, no carbonation, and lots of viscosity on the sides of the glass.

S - Oak, toasted caramel malt, alcohol effervescence some spiciness, and alcohol spirits on the nose.

T - Toasted caramel, citrus, oak, spirits, some subtle char, light hop bitterness, and ends on the boozy sweeter side.

M - Light syrupy texture that leaves some residue on the lips and light warming in the back of the throat.

O - Utopias and 120 just got together and had a baby, this is a fantastic beer with nice complexity.

Courtesy of @roguer from '25 BIF

Pours a murky copper, no head, just a small ring of bubbles. Last ounce or so of the bottom of the bottle poured some sludge that I should have expected given the age. Smell is faint hops. Taste surprisingly sweet with hints of hop bitterness. Individual taste profiles are very hard to decipher here but I love it. Lightly carbonated, somewhat slick mouthfeel, especially as it warms. Anyone that says this is an IPA, especially with age, sorry, this is a barleywine. This is fantastic at three years age.

Aged 2 years, poured cellar temp from a bottle into a 16oz pint glass.
Appearance is deep amber, no head whatsoever and no lacing.
Aroma is malt, bourbon, toffee.
Taste is boozy, sweet malt forward, butterscotch.
Mouthfeel is pretty full. Boozy wine kinda feel. Not getting any hop flavor. Warming notes for sure.
Overall, let me say this was bought in error. I wanted to try their original 120 minute as I've heard so many folks speak highly of. Regardless, this is NOT what I was expecting. Nowhere near an IPA profile. The brewer boasts hops after hops and fermented on hops with more hops. Well, not picking up hops at all sadly. This is like drinking sherry with some bourbon mixed into it with a malty profile. Won't get this one again but would still like to get my hands on the original 120 minute IPA.

 

Pours an a dark amber gold to almost brown. With an aggressive pour there is a nice head but it recedes very quickly and then there's no head at all. The nose is full of complex fruity esters and sweetness and spicy citrusy hops. Spicy alcohol, wood, whiskey. Taste is sweet at first. There's very little hop bitterness but there are some hop flavors. Big warming alcohol note hits hard. There's even a bit of a whisky character here, from the barrel aging most likely. Residual sweetness through the finish. There's a lot of hops here. But the sweetness and booziness are the most dominating characteristics. The character of this is really most similar to a fortified wine like a sherry or port, although it is, of course, still a beer, and so is better than either of those. The mouthfeel is very smooth and rather heavy. Great, as expected. I've had regular 120 before so I knew this wouldn't be a typical DIPA.

Poured from a 12 oz bottle into a snifter.

L - Light amber color and cloudy. Some light sediment in the bottle. No head, even after the initial pour. This is not uncommon in a high-ABV barrel aged beer, but it's still not attractive.

S - Deep aromas swirl, with citrus hops blending in a candy-like way with alcohol sweetness. Bready malt and aged oak add roundness.

T - The flavors reinforce the candy-like impression from the nose. It has equally strong dank hops and aged malt; an unusual combination, but it works here. The oak and strong alcohol add layers to the flavors.

F - Thick body with extremely low carbonation, but the mouthfeel and finish are surprisingly clean, perhaps because of the strong alcohol. Massive hops bitterness is swirled with strong alcohol heat, but it is all offset by the sweetness of the malt. The result is a punch of sensations in the mouth, but the punch is padded by velvet.

O - This is an unusual but amazing beer. It has all the elements of "regular" 120 Minute IPA, but also the magic of the Utopias barrels and the massive beer that sleeps in them.

 

Rating across multiple tastings:
As an IPA - this isn't really all that representative, in my opinion. The nose is definitely creeping towards darker brews, especially as it ages. The Utopias has played more into the brew over time, and it was impressive how it played in when fresh. The port-like flavors it brings throws this more into the barleywine realm (that many claim tripe IPAs can lean towards to begin with) or even a hoppy quad as it ages. A very interesting combination of scents and flavors that might not quite fit into a normal style category.

I've had a lot of 120 Minute at many different ages in bottle, but this is still an interesting addition to a lineup of self-aged verticals. Given the high price point, I'm guessing most who are interested in this are also familiar with the base offering. In my experience, the main differences are that the Utopias barrel-ageing imparts some pretty modest barrel character, accelerates the transition of 120 Minute to a more malt-forward profile, and introduces some newer fruity notes that I don't get much of in the regular releases. Worth seeking out for fans of the original.

 

 

 

Picked up a four-pack from the main campus brewery 7-27-23 for $40. Guessing this was bottled 3-18-23; consumed bottle #3 for review 5-1-24.

Beer poured tea brown with a nice off-white head that dissipated quickly.

Nose is dark fruit forward, very nice.

Taste is a boozy malt base that is dark fruit forward. Hopping is definitely present as this is a balanced beast, but the barrel's dark fruit dominates any hop distinguishment. Finishes with a boozy burn with each sip.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied and kind of smooth.

Overall this beast should definitely sit on the sidelines for another 5-6 years as the barrel is not integrated after a year.